A Japanese-style hairstyle, and aside from a loincloth and wooden sandals, the only thing on him was a long sword slung across his back.
"What's going on with you all? Why are you all kneeling here?"
"Lord Oden?"
"We mistakenly took the envoys of the god for a monster and nearly committed a grave mistake. We are here atoning for it…"
Perhaps out of the principle of not daring to lie before a god, these people recounted everything that had happened in full detail.
Oden also noticed the seemingly harmless kids, Inuarashi and Nekomamushi.
"How shameful! Because of your own ignorance, you feared those who look different and even bullied such small children. It's truly pathetic!"
This person was none other than Kozuki Oden, the son of the Shogun of Wano Country, and the current Daimyo of Kuri.
If Nereus hadn't been here, he would have taught these Wano Country residents a lesson himself, and because of that, he would have earned the gratitude of Inuarashi, Nekomamushi, and Kawamatsu. From that point on, the three would follow Kozuki Oden and become his retainers.
"Dad… is there something wrong with this country? Why is a pervert like him calling others shameless…"
Although the loincloth covered his privacy, he was practically running around half-naked. If anyone was shameless, Nanamo felt they were about the same.
"Don't mind him. His way of thinking is rather unique. If you find it abnormal, then that's normal."
Kozuki Oden had been dealt a great hand but played it terribly. He had many chances to defeat Kaido, yet he missed them all.
If even one step had gone differently, Kaido would never have been able to seize Wano Country in that way.
"Well… they did make a mistake and should indeed be punished, but no matter what, I am the Daimyo of Kuri, and they are my subjects. It's not good for them to keep kneeling here forever.
How about this, I'll take the punishment in their place. Let them go back, is that acceptable?"
Kozuki Oden, who had originally intended to leave, suddenly turned back and very solemnly proposed to take the punishment on their behalf.
For a long period of time, Kozuki Oden had been a scoundrel and even caused quite a bit of trouble in Wano Country. It wasn't until he was twenty that he began to change, subduing many outlaws in Kuri and starting to develop the region.
But he was still Oden, so making such a choice was not surprising.
"Whoever commits the mistake should bear the punishment. At best, they were ignorant; at worst, this was attempted murder. This punishment is already very light."
"That actually makes a lot of sense… this is troublesome…"
"Although it was out of fear, they did stop in time. I'll give you a chance. Defeat her, and I'll accept your condition."
Being allowed to take punishment in someone else's place only if you win. It sounded absurd, but Oden accepted this unequal agreement without hesitation.
"Thank you. You're really a good person."
In terms of height, Kozuki Oden was much taller than Nereus. Compared to Nanamo's petite figure, and considering his own combat strength in Wano Country, Kozuki Oden felt that the other side was already going easy on him.
Meanwhile, Nanamo pointed at herself, then at Kozuki Oden.
"My dear father, are you serious?"
"Of course I am. I said I would test you if you came out. I was originally wondering where to find a suitable opponent for you, but now I've found one."
The only thing about Kozuki Oden that no one questioned was his strength.
At present, he had not yet left Wano Country, and his own strength had not reached its peak. Nanamo was also still in her growth phase. In a sense, he made for a rather decent test paper.
"Don't worry, little girl, I won't go too hard on you. By the way… you're from the outside seas, right? If I win, can you take me out to sea with you?"
By the age of eighteen, Kozuki Oden had already attempted to illegally set sail thirty-eight times.
However, the seas outside Wano Country were complex, and Oden himself was not skilled in navigation. Due to Wano's isolation, there were no suitable ships for long-distance voyages.
As a result, Kozuki Oden's success rate for those thirty-eight attempts was zero.
Now that he had finally encountered people from the outside seas, his desire to go out to sea surfaced once again.
"Win against her first, then talk to me about such conditions."
In a sense, Kozuki Oden was someone very easy to fool—easy to fool and powerful, which made him a very convenient asset.
With proper planning, taking control of all of Wano Country wouldn't be anything complicated. However, he himself was also an unstable factor. For now, Nereus had no such plans and only wanted to use Kozuki Oden to test Nanamo's combat ability.
"Then I'll have to get serious."
He said he'd get serious, but Oden still didn't take Nanamo too seriously, and the price for that was quite painful.
Five seconds later, Kozuki Oden struggled to pull his head out of the sand and began recalling what had just happened.
It seemed like, in an instant, he had been thrown away by Nanamo.
"Dad, I understand you want to test me, but could you not pick an idiot?"
Nanamo clapped her hands; she hadn't held back much at all.
She believed that since Nereus dared to use this person as her test, he must be very durable. There was no way he'd die from a single hit.
"..."
It was rare for Nereus to be this speechless. Then he suddenly reached toward Hermes beside him. Before Hermes could react, his hand pierced straight through its abdomen and pulled out a light-blue wallet.
"Wait… Dad, how did you know my wallet was there?"
"When you go out, don't you always keep your things on Hermes? Get serious. If you lose later, this wallet will be mine.
And you, the one who wants to go out to sea! You're carrying a sword, aren't you? You can use your weapon. No need to hold back, or you'll lose miserably."
When Charlotte Linlin was seventeen, although she didn't yet have the title of Emperor of the Sea she would later gain, she was already a well-known great pirate on the seas.
At Nanamo's age, even if she hadn't reached that level yet, she wasn't far off.
Kozuki Oden, who had been violently thrown away, had now been knocked into full alertness. At Nereus's signal, he drew the Ame no Habakiri from his back.
Though he had just eaten a mouthful of sand, he now looked excited. The strength of people from the outside seas filled Kozuki Oden with even more curiosity about the world beyond.
As a Two Sword Style swordsman, carrying only one sword did somewhat affect his strength, but he felt no fear because of it. Instead, he solemnly bowed and once again announced his name.
At this moment, he had already regarded Nanamo as a proper opponent, so he used what he considered to be proper samurai etiquette.
But Kozuki Oden had no idea what kind of state Nanamo would enter when someone else was holding her wallet.
"Spear of Elbaf • Roar of the Sea!"
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